- A retail store before adopting any new technology should spend time in studying the
utility and effectiveness of the application. It is advisable to speak to the stores who
have already adopted such technology successfully. Complete prior information
comes in very handy while deciding on such issues. - Any technology transfer without proper training support and updating is useless.
While moving to a new technology, a retail organization must be very clear on these
issues. Moreover, training is a continuous process. Need may arise anytime in future
for training on updated technology or for training of newly recruited personnel.
There should be scope for this in the contract for technology transfer. - It is always in the interest of the retail organization to have its own data processing
or technology using staff. Depending on technology vendor, such services may be
quite expensive and also not fit from a strategic perspective. - At any point, retail organization should not assign the handling of processes which
are technology oriented only to one or two personnel. Such indispensability of those
personnel can put the organization in a fix. A second line of command should always
be present in such critical areas. - In Post WTO era, issues related to copyrights and title of technology are very
critical. Especially if purchasing from international vendors, one must carefully read
through the contract, take legal advice before signing on the contract. - As a part of disaster plan a crisis management plan should be in place to tackle
situations arising out of system failure or snags in the software. Such circumstances
are common and should be planned for. - While acquiring any technology one important aspect is its price. This is also a
decisive factor for acquisition. Thus, generally it has been seen that to show the
product price low, some hidden costs in some other forms exist in the contract.
Such hidden costs make the product's cost to company much higher. While taking
such decisions, one must consider all monetary aspects including recurring costs as
minutely as possible.